18TH FEBRUARY

Today is cold but the brightness makes me want to dress for Spring. Fed up with my usual Winter clothes I dug out a coat that I bought when I was 21 on my first trip to Paris, our first visit together. We were there in January on the coldest of days and I remember the light being blue, sitting outside the Sacré-Cœur with a freezing fog over the city, going up the Eiffel Tower at night before finding somewhere to warm up. I came home with my coat from the APC sale and a vintage stripy jumper. I still have both but rarely wear either, I'm not sure why.

Along with thoughts of Spring here are a few things I've been distracting myself with lately. 

This article: 'I don’t want to constantly be working on myself, or powering through tough times with validating, feel-good platitudes. We have bad days; we feel bad about ourselves. That’s OK'.
Crisp cookies 
Cold weather cooking 
Breakfast bites and these seedy squares
This new to me brand
These glittery socks
This house (shot by Brian) 
And this house which I would quite like to run away to...

LITTLE THINGS

It's the little things. This morning I popped to a spot near work to get coffee and handed over my loyalty card to be stamped. The guy stamped the 7th spot and then just kept going from 8 - 12 before handing it back and saying my next coffee would be free. A little thing, a good thing.

This weekend there should be more good things as we're trying out a new Turkish place with friends, planning gyros, gelato and a few galleries. I hope you have good things coming your way too, here's my contribution...

THE YEAR SO FAR

This year started as years can, with a shocking hangover following a night of fun with friends. From there there has been a bout of tonsillitis for me, a couple of unexpectedly late nights (it's nice to know that we can still dance until 3am once in a while), gyros from a new place that made us feel like we were back in Greece and that lead to us heading home to book flights back to Greece for real. We've planned a trip to Copenhagen in the Spring and I've tried a few new recipes, roasted Brussels sprouts with salmon, cauliflower cheese baked potatoes. I went to a sewing class and started a new pottery class.

And now, after too much rain and too many dark days, the sun is shining. It may still be cold but I can take that.

And my hopes for the year? To do some sewing at home, to carry on at pottery producing wonky bowl after wonky bowl, to go to yoga and not worry too much about my lack of flexibility, to bake the occasional loaf of bread, to get outside, to have more breakfasts like this...